HD Highlights: September 5

SoHo Highlight: Poster Girl (Sky 10, 8.30, 5.1) An emotionally raw, Oscar-nominated documentary that follows Robynn Murray, an Iraq war veteran who went from a poster girl for women in combat to a traumatised anti-war activist. Said The Huffington Post (which thought it the favourite to win the Academy Award): “Murray comes off as a tough, macho type. So when we learn that prior to enlisting she was a cheerleader and a National Merit Scholar, we begin to realise what war can do to a person. She was told that she would be part of one of those public affairs teams meant to win the hearts and minds of the Iraqis. But when she arrived in Iraq she discovered what they didn’t tell her: that she would be the machine-gunner for the unit.” Poster Girl spearheads six weeks of top docos in this slot. Watch for Hear and Now, When I Knew, Hard Times: Lost on Long Island, 12th & Delaware and Run Granny Run. ✭✭✭✭

Network Premiere: The Killing (TV3, 9.30, 5.1) Game of Thrones, which begins its SD run tonight on Prime at the same time, isn’t the only SoHo drama to test the free-to-air market. TV3 is launching the first season of this atmospheric whodunit off the back of the penultimate, two-hour episode of The Block NZ, in the hope it will hit the ground running. But it’s a brave call given this serpentine thriller is so slow, dark and brooding — suggesting it will be a much bigger challenge to make rate than the last cable drama that went belly-up in this slot, The Borgias. However, at least it makes its SoHo transition in HD. ✭✭✭

Sky Movies Premiere: One Day (Sky 20, 8.30, 5.1) If not for the credits, you’d never know the director of this tedious, indulgent romance, Lone Scherfig, also was behind the camera of An Education and Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself. They were stunning departures from genre norms whereas One Day is as conventional as it is dull, save for a sweet twist and the contrivance of being built around the anniversary encounters of two friends who spent the night together 20 years earlier. Anne Hathaway, Jim Sturgess and Rafe Spall star. (2011) ✭✭